DEVELOPMENT OF SHORT-TERM MEMORY FOR SPEECH ATTRIBUTES

工作记忆(WM)可以被定义为大脑中可以保存和处理的信息量，以允许完成一项心理任务，如理解、解决问题或连续回忆。WM通常是用需要同时存储和处理信息的任务来衡量的。过去的研究表明，工作记忆的个体差异和发展差异对这种复杂的认知任务非常重要，但目前还不清楚工作记忆测量的基本过程及其发展变化。这一修订后的竞争性延续方案采用了我们最近设计的方法，以观察从6岁到成年的几个基本加工参数的发展变化：最近呈现的信息的短期记忆重试率，加快的发音速度；自动持有信息的持久性，如感觉记忆；以及以无关信息块衡量的S.TM容量。观察这些参数的发展变化很重要，因为许多研究人员认为，这些基本参数中的大多数(类似于计算机硬件)保持不变，主要是随着童年时期的发展而变化的知识和策略(类似于计算机软件)。这项计划中的研究不仅为基本参数的发展变化积累了进一步的支持，还有其他三个具体目标。(1)第一个目的是了解信息处理系统中基本参数的作用机制。例如，一项研究考察了容量限制是如预期的那样是注意焦点的中心限制，还是特定通道存储的容量限制(例如，听觉/语言和视觉/空间刺激的单独容量限制)。(2)第二个目标是了解基本参数如何相互影响。例如，一项研究考察了重审率的发展变化是否可能是容量限制变化的间接结果，方法是在检索率的测量过程中施加记忆负荷。(3)第三个目标是了解基本参数如何与更复杂的信息处理能力测量以及彼此之间的关系。这将在相对较大的相关研究中进行研究，并使用包含基本参数、复杂和简单记忆广度以及能力和学业成就衡量标准的模型进行研究。这一理论进步也应该有助于理解各种学习和语言障碍，众所周知，由于需要澄清的理论原因，这些障碍的特点是记忆力差。

Working memory (WM) can be defined as the amount of information that can be held in the mind and manipulated in order to allow the completion of a mental task such as comprehension, problem-solving, or serial recall. WM often is measured with tasks that require the storage and processing of information at the same tome. Past research shows that individual and developmental differences in WM are important for such complex cognitive tasks, but it is not yet clear what basic processes underlie WM measures and their developmental change. This revised competing continuation proposal adapts methods that we have devised recently to observe developmental changes in serval basic processing parameters, from age 6 to adulthood: the short-term memory retrial rate for recently presented information, speeded articulation rates; the persistence of automatically held information, such as sensory memory; and the capacity of S.T.M., measured in unrelated chunks of information. The observations of developmental changes in these parameters are important because many researchers have suggested that most of these basic parameters (analogous to computer hardware) stay fixed, and that is primarily knowledge and strategies (analogous to computer software) that change with development in childhood. Rather than just accumulating further support for developmental changes in the basic parameters, the planned research has three other specific aims. (1) The first aim is to understand the mechanisms of the basic parameters within information processing system. For example, one study examines whether the capacity limits are central limits in the attentional focus as expected, or instead are capacity limits in modality-specific stores ( e.g., separate capacity limits for auditory/verbal and visual/spatial stimuli). (2) the second aim is to learn how the basic parameters influence one another. For example, one study examines whether the developmental change in retrial rates could be an indirect consequence of the change in capacity limits, by imposing a memory load during the measure of retrieval rates. (3) The third aim is to learn how the basic parameters are related to more complex measures of information processing ability, as well as to one another. This will be investigated in relatively large correlational study and with models incorporating the basic parameters, complex as well as simple memory spans, and measures of aptitude and scholastic achievement. This theoretical advance also should help in understanding various learning and language disorders, which are known to be marked by poor memory span for theoretical reasons that need clarification.